Civil Society, Mobilization, and Communal Violence: Quebec and Ireland, 1890–1920

Abstract

The literatures on social movements and civil society focus on different dimensions of the social and political consequences of the associational sector. Useful analytical concepts can be developed by combining insights from these two approaches. Both point out the importance of state/civil society integration, which holds the potential of a better theoretical and empirical understanding of resultant collective action. In order to illustrate this process, the divergent evolution of Quebec and Ireland during the decades leading up to the First World War is discussed. War and conscription heightened nationalist tension in both settings, but while Ireland seceded and spiraled into civil war, Quebec returned to normalcy shortly after the end of the conflict. One of the reasons for this difference resides in the divergent patterns of civil society formation, mobilization, and organization Quebec and Ireland experienced during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This article shows that mobilization in Ireland turned increasingly away from routine politics, relying instead on a fast-growing, but essentially stateless network of organizations, while Quebec's mobilization was rapidly absorbed by a generally trusted, albeit co-optive political system.